75 years ago today… January 2, 1940 Battle of the Raate Road: The Soviet 44th division (of 9th Army ) now stretches 30 km, resembling a fallen tree. Siilasvuo’s 9th Finnish division sets about cutting it into mottis (Finnish word for logs), as they can destroy the column more easily by dividing it into isolated elements. At midnight, Captain Lassila’s battalion attacks a 500 meter section of Soviet artillery (parked 5 km East of Mäkinen’s roadblock). 6 Maxim MGs rake each end of the section, while infantry move up the middle and fan out East and West. Soviet gunners cannot fire back as the field guns face up the road and they cannot level antiaircraft MGs down at the Finnish troops. Lassila creates roadblocks at either end of the cleared section with felled trees and land mines. He brings up 9th Division’s only 2 Bofors antitank guns just in time to repel Soviet counterattack with tanks at 7 AM. Seven tanks are destroyed which further deepens the roadblock. While Soviet troop shiver in fear, the Finns relax in warmed tents with hot food. The Battle of Salla begins. The Soviet 122nd Rifle Division of 9th Army is under attack in the Salla sector. Soviet warships conduct minelaying operations off Petsamo. Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano sent a secret message to Belgium and the Netherlands, warning them of the German invasion plan. The Germans intercepted this message. The Irish government introduced emergency powers to intern IRA members without trial. Floods swept western Turkey today as new earthquakes added to destruction, suffering and death, in both the west and the east. Thirty-two villages in Geyve Valley, 100 miles southeast of Ankara were reported flooded and dispatches said many people had taken refuge in treetops awaiting rescue. Six hundred persons were reported missing at Kemal Pasha, a town of 50,000 people. The village of Azbali disappeared, it was said, and even the highest trees there were submerged. It was believed that all communication between Istanbu and Ankara, the capital, had been severed. King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia announces a reorganization of his military and establishment of an air base at Riyadh. Soviet submarine S-2 was lost on a mine laid by Finnish minelayer Louhi off Market Island in the Sodra-Kvarken Passage into the Gulf of Bothnia (Sea of Åland). All 50 of her crew are lost. The Finnish cargo ship Thor was bombed and sunk at Turku, Finland by Soviet Air Force aircraft. Neutral Norway reports it has lost 24 ships sunk and 99 mariners killed in the first three months of the war. A stronger U.S. national defense financed by new taxes, a constitution of new deal policies, and a national unity reinforced by calmness, tolerance and cooperative wisdom, was urged upon Congress today by President Roosevelt, in a message personally delivered to the newly convened session. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board. The NAACP announces it will not support Vice President John Nance Garner in his race for the Presidency in 1940. Secretary of State Cordell Hull denies any aspirations to the presidency. The United Press reports that some 300 Americans died in automobile accidents over the three-day New Year’s holiday weekend. The Texas A&M Aggies win the national college football championship after a perfect 11-0 season capped by defeating Tulane University 14-13 in the Sugar Bowl. The Aggies recorded six shutouts and surrendered only 31 points to opponents all season. Charles Edison of New Jersey becomes Secretary of the Navy; he had been Acting Secretary since the death of Claude A. Swanson on 7 July 1939. Department of State releases statement to press telling of the delivery of vigorous protest (dated 27 December 1939) to the British Foreign Office concerning the British removing and censoring U.S. mail from British, American, and neutral ships. British officials announce that the Yangtze River patrol flotilla in China will be cut from 13 to 3 ships. Hong Kong harbor is temporarily closed as a defense measure. Chinese Winter Offensive: Chinese 1st War Area ends operations and gradually withdraws to its original defensive positions. Chinese 4th War Area captures Wongyuan. U-555, U-556, U-751 laid down.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 16:17:01 +0000
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